Secondly, Humble your souls before the Lord for every evil you shall be convinced of: tell him, it pierces your hearts that you have so displeased him, and that it shall be a caution to you, whilst you live, never to return again to folly : invite him again to your souls, and mourn after the Lord till you have found him : If you seek him, he will be found of you, 2 Cor. xv. & It may be you shall have a thousand comforters come about your sad souls, in such a time to comfort them : this will be to you instead of God, and that will repair your loss of Christ : despise them all, and say, I am re- solved to sit as a widow till Christ return ; he, or none, shall have my love.
Thirdly, Wait on in the use of means till Christ return. O be not discouraged ; though he tarry, wait you for him ; for, blessed arc fill they that wait for him.
SERM. XXXIV. THE FOUNTAIN OF LIFE. 419
The fifth excellent Saying of Christ upon the Cross, il- lustrated.
After this, Jesus knowing all tilings were now accomplished, that the scripture might be fulfilled, suith, I thirst.
XT is as truly, as commonly said, death is dry: Christ found it so, when he died. When his spirit laboured in the agonies of death, then he said, / thirst.
This is the fifth word of Christ upon the cross, spoken a little before he bowed the head and yielded up the ghost. It is only re- corded by this evangelist ; and, there are four things remarkable in this complaint of Christ, viz. The person complaining: the complaint he made : the time when, and the reason why he so complained.
First, The person complaining. Jesus said, I thirst. This is a clear evidence, that it Avas no common suffering : great and resolute spirits will not complain for small matters. The spirit of a com- mon man will endure much, before it utters any complaint. Let us therefore see,
Secondly, The affliction, or suffering, he complains of; and that is thirst. There are two sorts of thirst, one natural and proper, another spiritual and figurative: Christ felt both at this time. His soul thirsted, in vehement desires and longings, to accomplish and finish that great and difficult work he was now about ; and his body thirsted, by reason of those unparalleled agonies it labour- ed under, for the accomplishing thereof: but it was the proper natural thirst he here intends, when he said, / thirst. Now, " this natural thirst," of which he complains, " is the faffing of " the appetite for moist nourishment, arising from scorching up " of the parts of the body for want of moisture *." And, amongst all the pains and afflictions of the body, there can scarce- ly be named a greater, and more intolerable one, than extreme thirst. The most mighty and valiant have stooped under it. Mighty Samson, after all his conquests and victories, complains thus, Judges xv. 18. " And he was sore athirst, and called on the " Lord, and said, Thou hast given this great deliverance into the " hand of thy servant, and now shall I die for thirst, and fall
* Silis est cupiditas nutrimenti, potissimum humidi, orta ex arefactione partiwn corporis animalism qua irrigcUiow tgentt Keckerra. Phvs. p. 404.
420 THE FOUNTAIN OF LIFE. SERM. XXXIV.
" into the hands of the uncircumcised ?" Great Darius drank filth v water, defiled with the bodies of the slain, to relieve his thirst, " and protested, never any drink was more pleasant to him*." Hence, Isa. xli. 17. thirst is put to express the most afflicted state, " When the poor and needy seek water, and there is none, " and their tongue faileth for thirst, I the Lord will hear them ;" i. e. when my people are in extreme necessities, under any extra- ordinary pressures and distresses, I will be with them, to supply and relieve them. Thirst causes a most painful compression of the heart, when the body, like a spunge, sucks and draws for moisture, and there is none. And this may be occasioned, either by long abstinence from drink, or by the labouring and expence of the spirits under grievous agonies and extreme tortures; which, like a fire within, soon scorch up the very radical moisture.
Nov.-, though we find not that Christ tasted a drop since he sat with his disciples at the table ; after that no more refreshments for him in this world: yet that was not the cause of this raging thirst ; but it is to be ascribed to the extreme sufferings which he so long had conflicted with, both in his soul and body. These preyed upon him, and drank up his very spirits. Hence came this sad complaint, / thirst.
Thirdly, Let us consider the time when he thus complained. '• When all things were now accomplished," saith the text ; i. e. when all things were even ready to be accomplished in his death. A little, a very little while before his expiration, when the pangs of death began to be strong upon him : and so it was both a sign of death at hand, and of his love to us, which was stronger than death, that would not complain sooner, because he would ad- mit of no relief, nor take the least refreshment, until he had done his work.
Fourthly, and lastly, Take notice of the design and end of his complaint : " that the scripture might be fulfilled, he saith, I thirst;" i. e. that it might appear, for the satisfaction of our faith, that whatsoever had been predicted by the prophets, was exactly ac- complished, even to a circumstance in him. Now it was foretold of him, Psal lxix. 21. " They gave me gall for my meat, and, in " my thirst, they gave me vinegar to drink ;" and herein it was verified. Hence the note is,
Doct. That such were the agonies and extreme sufferings of our Lord Jesus Christ upon the cross, as drank up his very spirits, and made him cry, I thirst.
t; If I, (said * one) should live a thousand years, and every day
* Cujusmvdi voluplatis haclenus inexpertusfui ? Plut.
f Si possc?n civcre milk annos, et qualibet die millies moripro eo> eadcm ?nortc qua Me
SEEM. XXXIV. THE FOUNTAIN OF LIFE. 421
" die a thousand times the same death for Christ that lie once died " for me, yet all this would be nothing to the sorrows Christ en- " dured in his death.''1 At this time the bridegroom Christ might have borrowed the words of his spouse, the church, Lam. i. 12. " It is nothing to you, all ye that pass by ? See and behold, if " there be any sorrow like unto my sorrow which is done unto me, " wherewith the Lord hath afflicted me in the day of his fierce " anger.1'
Here we are to enquire into, and consider the extremities and agonies Christ laboured under upon the cross, which occasioned this sad complaint of thirst ; and then make application, in the se- veral inferences of truth deducible from it.
Now the sufferings of our Lord Jesus Christ upon the cross were two-fold, viz. His corporeal, and spiritual sufferings: We shall open them distinctly, and then shew how both these meeting to- gether upon him in their fulness and extremity, must needs con- sume his very radical moisture, and make him cry, / thirst. To begin with the first.